everything is blue
by splendorousfire
Summary: Her flames, her nails, her tears. Oneshot. Tyzula Week.


**_This is for the prompt 'Blue.'_**

 ** _Inspired by "Colors" by Halsey, one of my favorite songs that immediately sprang to mind when I read the Tyzula Week prompts._**

* * *

 _You're dripping like a saturated sunrise  
_ _You're spilling like an overflowing sink  
_ _You're ripped at every edge but you're a masterpiece  
_ _And now I'm tearing through the pages and the ink_

* * *

 **HER FLAMES**

Ty Lee forgot that color. Or maybe she never could. Maybe she just pushed it aside.

But she could not ignore it at the moment because she watched it in the middle of a street. She was supposed to be stopping it but she watched, transfixed by that shade of blue that no longer existed in her life. For years, years, years she forgot about the shade of blue Princess Azula was.

Her aura had been devoid of color for a long time.

Ty Lee struggled to remember that Azula consisted of any colors.

She was made of blue. Blue like those flames that licked and singed anything in its path.

Someone else involved intervened and Azula remembered herself. She remembered herself and she was as grey as her aura yet again. Ty Lee wanted to cry in the vague silence that surrounded her like an impenetrable bubble.

"Some help you were," snapped a bulky guy with a burned hand.

"Sorry," said Ty Lee and she did not hear the words escaping her own lips.

They went back to the palace. Ty Lee sat in a forgotten room in a forgotten wing of the palace devoid of life, devoid of color, where the pallid princess stayed in bed most of the day.

Ty Lee took a deep breath and went to see her.

. Azula looked pale these days. She lost weight. She seemed wan and sickly and it was almost impossible to connect her to that wild, pulsing blue.

"Hey," said Ty Lee, and Azula turned away from her. "Can I stay here a while?"

Azula made some vague hand motion that Ty Lee knew she should take as _no_ , but she feigned ignorance and knew anyone would believe it.

They stayed silent for ages.

"What do you want from me? I saw you in that street. You looked afraid of me. I didn't know you could be. Weren't you jumping at the chance to be a hero again?" Azula demanded, bunching up the blankets in her fist.

"I've just been gone a long time. I forgot what your fire looked like," said Ty Lee. "It's not cold."

"Oh, really? Fire isn't _cold_. Did it really take you so long to figure that out?" snarled Azula.

"No. On Kyoshi Island blue is cold. It's like ice and the clothes you wear to avoid freezing to death. Or the water everywhere that I swam in like once before deciding it was way too cold for me," said Ty Lee, and she reached forward to softly touch Azula's shoulder. She had hoped the princess would turn to face her, but she did not. "When I'm with you like I am now, blue isn't cold anymore."

"Finally found a positive to this situation, huh? Blue can be warm. Marvelous." Dry, scathing. Ty Lee was not hurt by it.

Azula was always this beautiful work of art, made from bright red and shades of blue that touched in places to make a brilliant lilac.

Now, she was not so perfect anymore.

At least, Ty Lee thought so until she saw that PR nightmare in the street today.

Princess Azula was ripped at every edge but she was a masterpiece.

Painted in blue.

Painted in a fiery, hot, molten blue.

 **HER NAILS**

Azula was the prettiest thing in the entire Universe in the morning when she sunlight poured through her bedroom window and illuminated her ivory skin. She belonged beneath the sun; she was designed to glow in its light.

It was enough to make Ty Lee believe in Sun Gods and silly old legends like that.

"It's so pretty today," said Ty Lee.

 _You're so pretty today._

"It looks like every other miserable day," Azula said. "And who let you sleep on the bed like people? I set a bed up on the floor."

"Zuko did."

"Yes, because I told him to," said Azula, sitting up.

"At least he listens to you. That's good, right?" Ty Lee smiled.

"He listens to me because he feels sorry for me. That isn't what I want," said Azula.

"I did toes to nose, anyway. I thought maybe the… sexualness of it would bother you so I stayed on top of the blankets too and—"

Azula held up her right palm. "I don't care. Sleep where you want. It doesn't make a difference, does it?"

"You don't feel good today, do you?"

Azula stared at Ty Lee like she was a moron for a few moments.

"No. No, I don't."

"You know what'll make you feel better?" said Ty Lee. "If I give you a makeover."

Azula simply stared. She could not disagree more, but she also could not summon the words to protest. They did not seem important enough to her.

"I got this blue nail polish from this cute boutique in Downtown Caldera. They just don't sell this kinda stuff on Kyoshi Island." Ty Lee rummaged in her bag for it and shook it in the air.

Azula sat still for ages. Ty Lee began to falter, and her smile faded.

"Go ahead and paint them. They could use attention."

Ty Lee could not be happier.

The sunrise draped Azula in beautiful colors as Ty Lee painted her nails blue.

 **HER TEARS**

The sink overflowed three nights after Ty Lee painted Azula's nails.

It hid the disgraced princess's tears, or perhaps it complemented them perfectly.

Ty Lee knew she walked in on something she was not supposed to see, but she did care. She loved Azula too much.

"What is it?" asked Ty Lee, her heart racing. It scared her to intrude. Azula was dangerous. She knew it already, of course, after so many years of friendship—more than friendship for a little while—but when she decided to work for Zuko, they hammered it into her head again and again.

 _Unstable._

 _Dangerous._

 _Unstable._

 _Dangerous._

"None of your business," snapped Azula through tears.

Ty Lee saw a lot of water over the past years. It saturated her clothes, her skin, her hair. She saw puddles that looked like gateways to other dimensions— _maybe that one is a better place,_ she would think—and snowmelt flowing so pure, and the blue bay where the Unagi slept. Cold water. Cold blue. But those tears were hot, almost steaming on a reddened face. They were that warm, burning blue that Ty Lee saw in only one place.

"Why are you sad? If you know. It's okay if you don't know," said Ty Lee.

Azula just stared at the overflowing water. It took forever, but Ty Lee did not leave like Azula expected she would.

The princess took a breath, a breath she loathed.

"Sometimes," she said shakily, "when I'm alone, which has been always for years…" Azula paused, as if considering her words. Ty Lee patiently waited. "Sometimes, when I'm alone, I imagine myself dying. Life pouring out of me like an open tap, creating this river of my blood."

Zuko would say 'Don't say that.'

"It's okay," said Ty Lee, and Azula's eyes widened. At first, Ty Lee thought she had said something terrible. "It's okay for you to feel that way. I don't want you to feel that way, but…"

Azula said nothing. She waited for a few moments and then twisted the golden knob and turned off the sink.

"You don't want to get onto this journey," Azula stated. "You're sweet and bubbly and all those things that make people weak but… happy. I'll drag you down."

"I'd let you drag me anywhere if it meant you'd hold my hand," whispered Ty Lee.

Azula took a few tentative steps forward.

Ty Lee kissed her.

She tasted salty like those blue tears.

Her aura surged molten blue again, if only until the kiss broke.


End file.
